Cilantro Scallion Black-Eyed Pea Dip

Thank you for the lovely comments on my post announcing my return from my accidental blog break – it was so nice to see familiar names as well as new ones. In return for your kind comments, I am making good of my promise to share a recipe for a cilantro hummus. If you know me, you know that might not necessarily involve two mainstays of hummus, namely chickpeas or tahini. I have had such luck using black-eyed peas in hummus and dips (as with this lemony dip or this spicy lemon hemp hummus) that I was inspired to see how black-eyed peas would combine with cilantro. I made a couple of versions of this, and the one with scallions was my favorite (no surprise, considering how much I love my recipe for scallion cashew vegan cheese).

What really makes this recipe, though, is avocado oil, and for that I have to thank JL for her recipe for Lentil Humus. In describing this recipe, she mentioned that avocado oil is light and fresh-tasting – it was those two words that actually made me finally splurge on avocado oil, which I had been eyeing for a while, but kept putting off buying. I knew from making cilantro-based hummus in the past that somehow olive oil did not quite work with it, as I always found myself adding more lemon for a fresh note. As I was playing around with the recipe, Gena posted a Cilantro Hummus as well, which is fantastic by the way. This dip is a little earthier and even heavier on the cilantro.

I am submitting this recipe to this month’s Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten-Free, created by Naomi of Straight into Bed Cakefree and Dried and hosted by the lovely ladies of Flip Cookbook. The theme is Mother’s Recipe Box – oddly and sadly, there are no recipes that I associate specifically with my mom, though she always cooked when I was growing up, and still cooks a lot today. I do associate specific techniques and methods, however, and the fact that she does not like to follow recipes to the letter. I should add my mom would always shoe me out of the kitchen when I was a child and teenager, telling me it was more important that I go study than learn how to cook. I soon realized this was my mom’s approach to asserting some feminism in my upbringing – i.e. valuing the importance of studying and excelling at school over homemaking – and for that I am grateful. I had that revelation when I was about 13 when she told me about a friend of hers in school who was smart and studious but whose parents only encouraged her to excel at homemaking and how upsetting it was to her friend (this was, I should add, the 1950s in a very conservative and fairly rural town, and I had met this friend growing up). So in that sense, I appreciate her approach to my lack of homemaking skills as it was a real departure for her.

Practically speaking, though …I graduated from college and had to teach myself how to cook and, err, make a nice bed (I never had to make my bed growing up). To this day, I make a lumpy bed and cannot understand how to achieve nice crisp corners – but I think I am caught up on the cooking front. Since then I have cooked with my mom, and realized she is more about techniques and methods than specific recipes. And, sometimes to my frustration, she does not like to be hemmed in by recipes. I bet she would make the above dip using mint instead of cilantro which would probably be pretty delicious, come to think of it, but is not the recipe. So for Mother’s Day, I think this recipe is perfectly appropriate for my GAHIGF submission – my mom loves all hummus and bean dips that I make, and the recipe is just as much about a method and creativity as the recipe, so it seems appropriate..

Cilantro Scallion Black-Eyed Pea Dip (gluten-free, vegan, soy-free)

Inspired by Gena’s Cilantro Hummus and JL’s Lentil Humus and some of my own recipes, this dip is fantastic atop all the usual hummus dippers – veggies, crackers, tortillas or directly off a spoon. All you need is just a tablespoon of avocado oil, but for a decadent result, feel free to double or triple that amount.

2 cups cooked black-eyed peas (equivalent to 1 15oz can drained. Eden Foods is a good brand with transparent standards for managing allergens, including gluten)

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

½ to 1 teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon avocado oil

1 cup cilantro (I used stems and leaves)

¼ cup chopped scallions

Warm black-eyed peas by steaming or simmering for three minutes. Place in bowl of food processor. Add remaining ingredients except for cilantro and scallions and process until smooth, occasionally stopping the food processor to scrape down the sides.If you find that the hummus is very thick, feel free to add a tablespoon of water to make the processing easier. Add cilantro and process until incorporated. Add scallions and pulse briefly until incorporated.

First, this looks delicious! I’m obsessed with black-eyed peas. Second, so glad you got your hands on some avocado oil! I absolutely love it and, when I do use oil, it’s almost always my first choice! It’s really wonderful in raw dips and soups.

It’s such an interesting issue, homemaking and feminism. I think your mother did right to foster your academic and driven side, though I think that it’s the best of both worlds when we can discover cooking well after we’ve fostered a sense of competitiveness and career focus. Clearly, you’ve done that, with plenty of delicious recipes to show for it!

I could not agree more – I think in the long run, it is a lot easier to learn the homemaking skills later rather than unlearn patterns that my mom was trying to avoid teaching me (ie placing value on domesticity over career) – that said, it would be ideal to view homemaking skills as part of a woman’s toolkit for independence and autonomy too.

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About Valerie

My name is Valerie and I am passionate about thriving in all aspects of life – professional and personal. For me that means working long hours as an attorney and strategizing to balance the demands of job with my interests in food, healthy and mindful living.